For months, there’s been a shortage of attorneys needed to represent indigent defendants, leaving thousands without legal representation and causing state-employed public defenders to take on extra caseloads.
On Monday, those state workers pleaded their case for the right to unionize and advocate for higher pay.
Workers at the organization that oversees the state public defender system, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, have been discussing unionization for years and took their concerns to the state lawmakers.
“There is no voice in our upper management that is responsive to our constant reminders that our clients are suffering, that our staff is overwhelmed and that many of us are facing abuse in the courtroom,” said Tanvi Verma, one of about 425 public defenders at CPCS. “With that being true, our only support is ourselves.”
Verma and others spoke in front of the Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions about placing the question of unionization on the ballot for November. Lawmakers must decide by May 5 whether to pass the measure directly into law themselves, or let voters decide this November.
If the legislature doesn’t enact this measure as written, supporters must gather an additional 12,429 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel for CPCS, didn’t speak for or against unionization for staff during the hearing.
“The role of CPCS leadership is not to advocate for a particular outcome,” he said, “but to ensure that whatever framework the commonwealth adopts can operate effectively while maintaining the constitutional obligation to provide counsel to those who cannot afford it.”
Benedetti said CPCS has more than 860 employees, half of whom are attorneys. CPCS staff also includes social workers, investigators and administrative staff.
The shortage of attorneys to represent those who can’t afford their own lawyer stems from the refusal of private attorneys who fulfill the same function, called bar advocates, to accept new cases last summer unless their pay is increased.
Public defenders and bar advocates serve the same basic purpose, but bar advocates are independent contractors, while public defenders are employed by the state. The bar advocates handle about 80% of the indigent caseload.
To address the backlog of defendants, the CPCS announced a temporary incentive program aimed to stabilize the public defense system.
At the same time, bar advocates have sought pay increases as well. State lawmakers agreed to raise the hourly pay for bar advocates by $20 over two years. A $10 increase went into effect last August and another $10 raise will occur this August. That will raise the pay for district court cases to $85 per hour; for murder cases the new rate will be $140 per hour.
That’s still low compared to other states; the hourly rate for bar advocates in Maine is $158; in New Hampshire it’s between $125-$150; and in Rhode Island, the range is $112-$142.
Bar advocates’ efforts to further increase pay hit a wall on Monday, when the Supreme Judicial Court decided not to order increased pay rates for bar advocates, stating it would be “inappropriate.”
Meanwhile, public defenders with CPCS have been working with SEIU Local 888 and the National Association of Government Employees to include the ballot question, which would allow them to unionize.
Tom McKeever, president of the SEIU Local 888, said the union is taking the ballot question route after having no success attempting to present the multiple legislative cycles with no luck.
McKeever said that the proposal would not automatically create a bargaining unit. It would grant CPCS employees the same legal process that many other public employees use to determine whether they wish to organize.
“What a union would bring on behalf of this group is just cause protection,” McKeever said during the hearing. “And the ability to plan and predict the future, just like many other state employees.”
The joint committee will accept any written testimony in favor of or against the unionization of the CPCS until Friday, March 20.
